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Kent’s business is built on trust with his clients, so he will not disclose the identity of the recreational prospector or the exact site of discovery. He outlined the find to BRW.

The recreational prospector was going over land just outside Ballarat. He was using a Minelab GPX 5000 gold detector, his first detector, which sells for just over $6500.

“He spent a lot of money on the detector – much to his wife’s chagrin," Kent says.

He had only had the detector for a few months and was still working out how to use it properly. While sweeping over some leaf mulch in an area that, according to Kent, has been worked out many times before, his contraption started making a lot of noise.

He cleared away the leaf mulch and then dug more than half a metre into the ground. He had found a lot of junk nearby, so his hopes were still. He dug carefully. Eventually he saw gold, and as he kept digging the nugget just kept on extending and extending.

The President of the Prospectors and Miners Association of Victoria, Rita Bentley, says the nugget should fetch at least a 10 per cent premium on its weight, perhaps more. “I do know I can’t afford it," she says of its value.

There are nugget collectors around the world and museums are often buyers. While gold has fallen from its September 2012 peak when it was approaching $US1800 an ounce, it is still trading at historically high prices. Today it is trading at around $US1679 an ounce.

Prospectors in Victoria need to have Miner’s Right, which costs $31.30 for two years. This gives permission to prospect on unreserved Crown Land (some national and state parks are restricted). If they get permission, they can also search on private land.

While he won’t reveal the site of discovery to BRW, Kent says it is a place he knows well. He has prospected himself within metres of it.

“There’s a saying that every nugget you find has your name on it. This nugget must have had his name on it," he says.